Negotiation of Memory and Agency in Japanese Oral Narrative Accounts of Wartime Experiences

Abstract

Constituting a generational category named Showa hitoketa, or Showa single digit, Japanese born between 1926 and 1934, or the first nine years (literally, single‐digit years) of the Japanese indigenous era called Showa (1926–89), experienced World War II as children and adolescents. Today, as the label shows, their generational identity is inseparable from the discourse on Showa, particularly as the era of war and chaos. Furthermore, it is inseparable from their distinctive memory of the wartime as institutionally mobilized young patriots, and from their experience of the ideological disjunction following the seemingly abrupt defeat of the nation. Examining their narrativized accounts of wartime experiences collected during the ethnographic interviews, this article explores the pragmatically generated meanings of conflict and identity in their discourses. Particular attention to the metalinguistic phenomena of reported thought illuminates how and why their past internal states are given significant voices in the present construction of memory and agency.