Narratives of World War II in the Pacific

The Afterlife of Families in Japan

Hibakusha - Survivors of the Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima

The Afterlife of Families in Japan

During World War II, Japan suffered tremendously. Most big cities were destroyed and the Japanese people experienced a great amount of loss. It is estimated that Japan lost anywhere between two million and three million people during World War II. This estimation includes those who were in the military and civilians who were killed. Family life played one of the most important roles for the Japanese people after the war. Japanese survivors feared the modernization of the family life, individuals mourned over their loved ones who did not return home, and atomic bomb survivors tried to marry soon after the attacks.

            After Japan surrendered the country was in total chaos, needing reorganization of the political power structure and to rebuild the country upon the ruins left by the war. “The experience of surrendering resulted in a collapse of the value standards for many people and thus there was social instability among those who lost their patriotic identity with the state. The family life was regarded as the only hope by many who returned from the battlefields and military factories.”[1] People hoped that returning to their family it would protect themselves from harsh conditions such as poverty and food shortages. However, due to economic hardships and housing shortages throughout the country establishing a family structure turned out to be unproductive. The revisions of the Family Code added tensions to families. Before the war Japanese families were institutionalized by the government, fully accepting that the family is a patrilineal institution meaning the eldest son was brought up to be the father’s heir. This began to change after the war. Japan believed that in order to create a modern, democratic family the patrilineal system needed to be abolished and a new conjugal family type must be stablished. These changes for the Japanese families were influenced by industrialization and urbanization.[2]

In addition to families suffering from the devastation caused by the war, they are also suffering from the loss of a family member. Many families lost a son, brother, father or grandfather during the war. These families had to learn to live their lives without fulling knowing what happened to their soldier. Some people even admit going to see a medium to try to talk to their family who died in battle. Even decades later, the loss of a loved one still impacts the surviving family members. Not all families received closure after losing their loved one. Most families only received a box from the Japanese government containing sand or stones from the location of where the soldier died. In recent years many American veterans have felt the need to return the souvenir items they brought home from the war. American soldiers brought home many items such as swords, flags, identification tags and pocketbooks. As these American veterans have gotten older, they feel the best thing to do with these items is to return them to the next of kin of the soldier they took them from. In 1995, a Navy veteran returned a Japanese soldier’s pocketbook to the soldier’s brother. The brother wrote the veteran thanking him and said “I was deeply moved by the fact that you have kept this notebook over five decades and have tried to find the family of the owner. This notebook was my brother’s soul, and I feel as if my brother has finally come back to us.”[3] For the surviving families, the returned items took the place of the soldier’s bodies. For many people these items were the first real items they received of the soldier’s death and represented him in a powerful way. Families were now able to have memorial services using the souvenirs as replacements for the missing body.

                Many people who experienced the war or the atomic bombs still suffer from their experiences. Hibakusha is the Japanese word for the victims who survived the atomic explosions at Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Survivors often marry each other because non-hibakusha people avoid intermarriage with survivors out of “fear of so-called “A-Bomb Disease,” the notion that survivors will develop subsequent cancers and that their children will suffer genetic defects.”[4] Following the explosions survivors started new families to express their hopes for rebirth and regeneration, however initial attempts at regeneration failed because postwar marriages among victims proved to be unhappy.

            Family proved to be one of the most important things for the Japanese people following the war. As soon as Japan surrendered the citizens started to work on rebuilding everything that was destroyed during the war. Japanese people seemed to focus a lot on family life after the war.  Having an active family life was comforting to many who experienced World War II. So many suffered a tough loss of a family member, some feared the change in the new family structure, and Hibakusha tried to immediately start new families. Japanese citizens relied on family to help them get through the devastation.

Oral History Summary

In "My Boy Never Came Home" Imai Shike tells about her life since her son, Imai Shigeo, was killed in World War II. She expresses the pain she feels even fifty years after his death. Shike admits that the death of her son has hurt her so much that she has visited a medium just to be able to talk to him again. She is not the only family member that has suffered this much from the war.