Research Proposal on "Atomic Bomb How it Was Made Why it Was Dropped Negative Effects on Japanese People"

Research Proposal 10 pages (3217 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

The Atomic Bomb and Its Effects on Japan and the World

Modern Japanese culture is fraught with paradox. A nation

constructed on ancient Shinto and Buddhist ideologies, its people have been

conditioned to infuse old-world practices and philosophies into all aspects

of life, from dining, working and recreation to aesthetics, religion and

art. But amid this highly conscious preservation of tradition are a

stifling number of indications that Japan is a vastly different nation than

it was only fifty years ago. Steeped in the implications, tastes and

peculiarities of Eastern life, Japan is also an example of Western

integration at its most thorough. The bulk of its history will show that

Japan was an imperialist force of the highest order, acting on intentions

of militaristic expansion well into the twentieth century with an

undeniable focus on the imposition of demonstrably Japanese ideologies.

Today, though, we recognize Japan as both an esteemed colleague in the

global domination of capitalism and, from a much more implicitly understood

angle, an American outpost for the physical and theoretical disbursement of

democracy. Naturally, such a great chasm between historical identities

has rendered Japan downright schizophrenic in some respects, with

consumerism and ultra-modernity somehow peacefully coexisting alongside

tradition and historical reverence. But its relative success, especially

when compared to the countless examples of failed nation building in recent

and classic history, does not remove the graveness of its origin.

Japan's imperialist push, which began with a 1931 invasion of

Manchuria and ended when the United States deployed two atomic warheads at

Hiroshima and Nagasaki fourteen years later, would be its last gasp and the

threshold to a period of unprecedented reconstruction. The socially

revised Japan that stands as one of America's clearest and staunchest

allies today, in the aftermath of World War II, underwent a facelift of

massive spiritual, political and economic proportions. For all intents and

purposes, the atomic bombs that would be dropped over Japan would wipe a

nation's history clean and begin a new slate.

Most immediately visible even in the first days that followed the

atomic strikes of August 1945 was a jagged does of reality that the emperor

was only human. Japanese Emperor Hirohito, whose name itself translates to

the claim that he was bestowed upon the people by heaven, was publicly

perceived as a divine figure. Indeed, the Japanese royal legacy was

directly correlated to the popular understanding of the Shinto faith which

delivered the ruling family. As such, the emperor was generally believed

by his subjects to be more than a man. He was a symbol of Japan; its

faith, its honor and its soul. (Cook 1993)

So his radio address to the people on August 14th, 1945, admitting

defeat and asking all Japanese citizens to follow suit, was inescapably

devastating to the psyche of an entire nation. Thousands of years of

imperial rule effectively came to an end when Emperor Hirohito advised

those loyal to him to accept the terms of the conquerors. Those terms were

nothing short of complete submission to the United States. When the

Japanese were forced to accept the radical circumstances of military

occupation and realignment in a Western image, the emperor's authority was

subverted to little more than the jurisdiction over an honorary title. And

in a famous photograph that depicts Supreme Allied Commander Douglas

MacArthur towering over his recently deposed opponent, Hirohito, the

Japanese were presented an image that shattered all illusions. (Cook 1993)

Among said illusions were the divinity of the emperor, and more troubling

to the Japanese self-image, the unparalleled power of mother Japan. The

man in whom many had invested their unwavering faiths of patriotism and

religiosity was impotent. Among the major changes provoked by the dropping

of the atomic bombs, this would be significant. The change in the identity

of Japan would have vast future implications to the region, altering the

orientation of what had long been a military power and an imperial scourge

of the Asian continent. With the dropping of the atomic bombs and the

psychological and practical struggles of rebuilding, Japan had given over

to the authority of the United States. This would create a new power

dynamic in which the influence of the United States would spread both to

Japan and to its broader region. (McClain 2001)

The effect on Japan's morale was certainly damaging. And the

political climate there following the war was dark and indecipherable. In

no small way, the losses Japan suffered during World War II were

devastating. Often characterized as having wiped out a generation, the

fourteen year war yielded 2.3 million military casualties and 800,000

civilian deaths. But beyond this monumental loss, Japan suffered what many

viewed to be the emasculating occupation of the United States beginning

with the sheer and unthinkable carnage produced by the atomic strikes.

(Cook 1993)

In accordance with his surrender, Emperor Hirohito sought to forego the war

crimes trials that faced his military leaders by becoming the strongest and

most visible proponent of westernization. And in doing so, he welcomed

General Douglas MacArthur, a powerhouse symbol of American authority, to

preside over Japan. The six years of American military occupation that

followed the war introduced a number of new elements to the Japanese

political identity. First and foremost, the United States addressed the

pressing concern of Japan's dejection over defeat by disarming it. A

nation who had spent the whole of its history with an emphasis on the

warrior tradition was stripped of its capacity to wage war. Both as a

safeguard against the potentially hostile outgrowth of resentment and as an

unavoidable retaliation for its aggression, the United States deemed Japan

a nation prohibited from possessing a standing army. Though for economic

and political reasons, the United States would attempt in vain to shift on

this position in the 1970s, it would become a distinctive detail of

Japanese culture that great warrior of lure was dead. And there was

natural frustration for the Japanese people, who initially viewed MacArthur

as a threat to the Japanese way of life. And it cannot be denied that

there is evidence to support that concern in many respects, perhaps the

most notable of which was the strict censorship of Japanese media during

that time which prevented any sentiments contrary to America or

reconstruction from reaching the general public.

Still, the Japanese psyche could not be removed from the experience

of the atomic blasts, which revealed a level of destruction and death that

the civilian population never imagined possible in its unwavering support

for the Emperor and the war in the Pacific. A compelling source located

during the research process underlines this reality by displaying a series

of artistic depictions of the atomic blast. Indeed, in the years to follow

the nuclear attacks on Japan, a wealth of artistic expression has been

produced as something of a shared national coping mechanism.

Thus, the 'Ground Zero' (1974) presentation is important in

understanding the effects on Japan of the nuclear attacks. For works

produced by such a demonstrably virulent and ethnically charged

international conflict, those commemorating the experience of having

witnessing the atomic events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not surprisingly

trained to focus on the human elements of the tragedy. Its seems there is

very little evidence of the aggressor in these portraits, but only of the

deeply personal and collective suffering that intermingled horribly in

these works. Recurrent notions of indelible visual trauma, guilt and

grief are spanned across these various images, which stand as the last

testament to the consequences of popular support for the war.

Thus, one telling segment of the "Ground Zero" display, entitled

'Ghosts,' points out that countless initial survivors of the atomic blasts

were left without what had been revered as the protective forces of the

emperor. Certainly, support had begun to wane for the war as a whole when

its duration and mounting domestic carnage had begun to suggest that the

Japanese policy-makers were not being fully candid with the public about

the war effort's effectiveness. The support of the Japanese people may be

seen as betrayed by the sheer defenselessness and lacking preparedness of

the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "Ground Zero" offers a populace at

ease in a regular morning's bustle when the first bomb is dropped

Hiroshima. In addition to this suggestion that many Japanese citizens had

fully no idea the extent to which the danger of the conflict had escalated

for them, there is the even more devastating sense that the public

allegiance could not be repaid in a time of grave need. Of the victims who

had emerged from the initial blast with terrible burns and countless

deceased family members, the display asks "where were these processions

heading? Here the enormity of the disaster became compounded, for there was

in fact almost nowhere to go." (Dower 1974) The loyalty of the Japanese to

their war machine would be met with a fate equal to that of the machine

itself, and the entrusted power of its government to… READ MORE

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