Turning a Disaster into Regenerative Strength: Hiroshima’s Strategy for Societal Peace in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study demonstrates how an anthropogenic narrative emerged in the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how it became a strategic tool to drive Hiroshima’s reconstruction processes, ascribing a new identity to the devastated city as a global advocate for peace. The atomic bomb survivors’ nascent anthropogenic discourse emerged as hearsay partially based on scientific news but primarily reflecting the survivors’ immediate and visceral observation of life at ground zero. The discourse evolved in synergy with the annual Peace Declarations and other public discourses, mobilising the hibakusha and changing their outlook. The study reveals, through a hybrid method of quantitative and qualitative analyses of over 20,000 testimonies from a-bomb survivors, the power of the anthropogenic discourse from ground zero in turning ad hoc disaster recovery efforts into the sustainable development of the city while fostering community consciousness for societal and global peace.