- Course Description
- The course will explore the atomic bomb experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and its significance,
which is nothing short of an unprecedented change in human history. We will begin with examining the forces which
culminated in the atomic bombings and discussing why America dropped them. Then, we will explore the power of
the atomic bombs by evaluating their physical, medical, and social effects on these two cities and their citizens.
Moreover, we will investigate these issues while paying attention to survivors’ accounts of the agony and destruction
of the atomic bombings. This course, furthermore, discusses the situation of Korean atomic bomb victims, whose voices
have long been suppressed. By reading historical studies, poems, novels, and studying cartoons, films, and photographs,
we will attempt to comprehend the realities of what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Through this course, by recognizing
the long-lasting impacts of the atomic bombs on human beings and society, we hope to understand anew their implications
for the whole world at present.
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- Class Schedule
- Week 1 (4/10): Introduction
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- Week 2 (4/17): The Origins of the Asian Pacific War: The Road to PearlHarbor
- Readings:
- Irie, Akira. “ Toward Pearl Harbor,” Across the Pacific. pp.200-226.
- Gordon, Andrew. Japan: A Modern History of Japan. pp. 204-212.
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- Week 3 (4/24): Documentary Film: “Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped”
- Readings:
- Walker J. Samuel, “The Decision to Use the Bomb,” Hiroshima in History and Memory. ed. Michael Horgan. pp. 11-37.
- Takaki, Ronald, “ A Matter of Moral Importance,” Hiroshima: Why American Dropped the Atomic Bomb. pp.131-140.
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- Week 4 (5/1): The Decision to Use the Bomb: The Official Narrative vs. Revisionist
Accounts
- Readings:
- Bernstein J. Barton, “ Understanding the Atomic Bomb and the Japanese Surrender,”
pp. 38-80. & Bix P. Herbert, “Japan’s Delayed Surrender.” pp.80-116.
Hiroshima in History and Memory. ed. Michael Horgan.
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- Week 5 (5/8): Reporting from Hiroshima:The First American Account of the Aftermath
of the Atomic Bomb (I)
- Reading:
- Hersey John. Hiroshima.
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- Week 6 (5/15): Reporting from Hiroshima: The First American Account of the Aftermath
of the Atomic Bomb (II)
- Reading:
- Hersey John. Hiroshima.
- Yavenditti, Michael J., “ John Hersey and the American Conscience: The Reception of “Hiroshima.” Pacific Historical Review 43(1974):24-49.
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- Week 7 (5/22): The Power of the Atomic Bombs: The Physical, Medical and Social
Effects of Atomic Bombings
- Reading:
- The Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the
Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Hiroshima A City Laid Waste,”The Impact of the A-Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945-85. pp.7-58.
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- Week 8 (5/29): Who are the Victims?: The Diversity of the Target (1)
- Readings:
- Hoom Kwi Kuak. “ Father and Son Robbed of Body and Soul,” pp. 200-204.
& Kim In Jo. “Koreans…and Americans and Chinese Are Also Victims,”
pp.205- 214. The Atomic Bomb Voices: From Hiroshima and Nagasaki.eds. Kyoko Selden and Mark Selden
- Toyonaga Keisaburo. “Colonial and Atomic Bombs: About Survivors of Hiroshima
Living in Korea, “ trans. Eric Cazdyn and Lisa Yoneyama, Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific War(s). eds. Takashi Fujitani, Geoffrey M. White, and Lisa Yoneyama, pp.378-409.
- Suggested Reading:
- Palmer, David. “The Straits of Dead Souls: One Man’s Investigation into
the Disappearance of Mitsubishi Hiroshima’s Korean Forced Laboures.” Japanese Studies 26 (2006):335-349.
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- Week 9 (6/5): Who are the Victims?: The Diversity of the Target (II)
- Reading:
- Yoneyama, Risa. “Ethnic and Colonial Memories: The Korean Atomic Bomb Memorial,” Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space, and the Dialectics of Memory. pp. 151-186.
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- Week 10 (6/12): Witnesses to Atomic Bombings-I: Cartoon, “Barefoot Gen”
- Suggested Reading:
- Nakazawa Keiji. “Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen.” Trans.
and Edit. Richard H. Minear. The Asian Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Sept. 2010:1-12.
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- Week 11 (6/19): Witnesses to Atomic Bombings-II: Novel,“Summer Flowers” by Tamiki
Hara and Poem, “Give Back the Human” by Sankichi Toge.
- Reading:
- Minear Richard,ed., Hiroshima: Three Witnesses (selections).
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- Week 12 (6/26): Documentary Film: “White Light Black Rain
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- Week 13 (7/3): Hiroshima Field Trip: Visiting the Peace Memorial Museum
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- Week 14 (7/10): Hiroshima in American Memory: The Smithsonian Controversy of 1995
- Readings:
- Hogan J Michael. “The Enola Gay Controversy: History, Memory, and the Politics of Presentation, ” Hiroshima in History and Memory. ed. Michael Horgan. pp. 200-232.
- Treat, John Whittier. “The Enola Gay on Display: Hiroshima and the American
Memory, “ Positions: East Asia Cultures Critics. Vol.5, No.3, (Winter 1997), pp.863-878.
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- Week 15 (7/17): Student Presentations and Discussion
- Wrap-up:
- The Legacy of Hiroshima and The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Incident
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