일본의 전쟁 기억과 역사 내러티브의 문학적 특질 ―패전의 기억을 중심으로―

Abstract

This study examined the literary characteristics of historical narratives of Japan's war memories. In alignment with the research objectives, the literary works of Shōhei Ōoka, Tamiki Hara, and Sadako Kurihara were selected as the subjects of study to investigate how a series of events related to the wars Imperial Japan instigated have been narrativized to construct memories and perceptions and to explore the specific characteristics of this narrativization. To accomplish those purposes, the study examined cases in which the "theory of escaping Asia” has been strategically narrativized through historical narratives of Japan's invasive wars. This research also investigated the victim consciousness movement that seeks to romanticize victim consciousness, bestow the reprieve of forgetfulness, and attain moral empathy. Lastly, the research examined aspects of constructing historical narratives and the narratives’ characteristics, with a focus on stories that critique nuclear exposure nationalism and illustrate the historical expansion of war memories. War memories and historical narratives surrounding the atomic bomb have undergone processes of remembrance, forgetting, and purification. To explore the potential for historical reconciliation, it is necessary to understand narratives based on distorted memories. Ultimately, to lead the historical present in the right direction, it is worth reflecting on how narratives of historical events are being restructured in the history of memory.