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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Japan
• art
• comics
• manga
• veterans
• Japan Disabled Veterans Association (JDVA)
• World War II
• postwar
• memory
• cartoons

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the Shokeikan Museum, in particular K. Kiryū, for the research support for this project. I am also grateful for the guidance of Hong Kal, Jooyeon Rhee and Abidin Kusno, and to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. A heartfelt thank you to the family of Nakatani Toji (Ryūji), in particular Hayama Yoriko and Hayama Natsuko.

Notes

1. Ryūji was Nakatani’s pen name; his real name was Toji.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Core University Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2018-OLU-2250001).