Hiroshima and two paradoxes of Japanese nuclear perplexity

Abstract

For the Japanese people, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 are singular moments of holocaust which have produced collective memories so powerful that repeated attempts by Japanese policymakers to introduce or even discuss a nuclear deterrent have been severely contested and sanctioned. Even so, Japan’s enduring rivalries with nuclear-armed China and North Korea have produced a powerful conviction among Japanese policymakers that US extended nuclear deterrence cannot be given up. Thus, two of the most pronounced paradoxes of the nuclear age are (1) the social construction of Japan whose people are simultaneously “allergic” to nuclear weapons but who do not wish to have it “treated”, and (2) successive Japanese governments which are forced to endure the “nuclear allergy” but which also will not be rid of the “allergens”. This paper develops a theoretical account of the discourse of “nuclear allergy” and thereafter explores more fully the paradoxes of nuclear allergies which must never be treated and allergens which must never be expelled.