Recasting the Body: Self-production of Japanese Disabled Veterans’ Image

Abstract

ABSTRACT The defeat of Japan in 1945 saw the return of hundreds of thousands of injured soldiers to Japan from other countries. Once celebrated for their bodily sacrifice by the Japanese Imperial Government, these wounded war veterans were repatriated to a society quickly trying to forget the war, while their bodies produced a constant reminder of it. Following the end of the Allied occupation of Japan in 1952, the Japan Disabled Veterans Association (JDVA) was formed. Although Japan attempted to create a new postwar narrative that emphasised “healthy body and nation”, the JDVA’s members had to find their own way to fit into postwar society. This article explores how wounded war veterans saw and represented themselves in postwar Japan. By looking primarily at the comic strips and images included in the monthly publication Disabled Veterans Monthly Gazette (Nisshō Gekkan), this article examines how maimed veterans expressed both acceptance and disavowal of their bodies, which were permanently inscribed with the memory of the war. I argue that the comics demonstrate the challenges disabled veterans faced as they attempted to participate in, and conform to, Japan’s postwar recovery even as their bodies maintained the scars of war.