Abstract

This book is a theoretical exercise and groundbreaking reflection on postwar Japan that highlights and contemplates “the imagination” as cultivated in the cultural space. Incisive critic and bestselling author Norihiro Kato delivers a robust follow-up to his Haisengo-ron (After the Defeat)*, a controversial essay that shifted Japan’s understanding of “postwar” and reignited debate between liberals and conservatives, possibly even inspiring the historical revisionist movements of the ’90s.
In 1945, Japan lost the war and was occupied by the Allies. In the three quarter-centuries since, has this unprecedented experience been confronted head-on? Has it been internalized in the being, processed in the mind? Japan’s surrender in World War II engendered an identity as a defeated nation and led to its own trauma that has carried over into the literary and artistic landscape ever since. As Japan struggles to process and digest its history, cumulating into a large gap with the other Axis powers, it now faces questions that are significant for all humans looking to restore and call upon their imaginative powers to overcome a deeply divided world.
Most of us are here today having lived a lifetime of setbacks, defeats, and failures. Surely, then, “the imagination of the defeated” has a universality that far surpasses that of the victorious. The way we face and come to terms with challenges, especially ones suffered collectively, necessarily shapes our entire view of the world and what possible futures we see in it.
Kato proposes that there is a kind of imagination that only those who have experienced defeat can possess. The defeated do not cry out for justice. They do not put faith in growth or responsibility. They do not place absolute trust in values like latest ideas or beautiful love… Still, the defeated can imagine, and their imagination is a productive one with potential to put forth new ideas and values for society. Kato makes an appeal for Japan and the world overall to embrace “defeat” in its many forms, because accepting that first will lead to progress and open up a future more meaningful than that achieved in trying to imitate “victory.”
This is an insightful book by one of the best scholarly minds in Japan that brings together the genres of history and art criticism. Readers knowledgeable in post-World War II history will find that the spirit of the era is contained not in timelines of events, but in books and screens. Connoisseurs of literature and film will see how specific works fit into the larger narrative of man’s postwar legacy. Those interested in Japanese culture in particular will be intrigued to learn how this consciousness of defeat (i.e., the surrender and the Occupation), which escaped Japanese society as whole, stimulated individual creators and imbued their works with a unique “Japaneseness” that attracts a worldwide audience to this day.
Haisha no souzouryoku (The Imagination of the Defeated) sheds light on the creative force that powers and flows through the literary works of Nobel laureates Kenzaburō Ōe and Kazuo Ishiguro, the beloved animations of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, the popular film icon Godzilla, the ideas of leading Japanese thinkers Takaaki Yoshimoto and Shunsuke Tsurumi, and more. What emerges is a kaleidoscope of Japanese culture, apt to forget but forever influenced by its undeniable history of war and defeat.

Author’s Information

Norihiro Kato (1948–2019) was a literary critic and professor emeritus at Waseda University. After graduating with a degree in French literature from the University of Tokyo, he worked at the National Diet Library before going on to teach at Meiji Gakuin University and Waseda University. Though specializing in French, he was also well-versed in English and Anglophone culture; he visited the Université de Montréal’s Centre for East Asian Studies during his time with the National Diet Library, and he gave lectures for study abroad students at Waseda University’s School of International Liberal Studies. He was an incisive critic, most notably of leading Japanese novelists like Haruki Murakami and Kenzaburō Ōe. His theory on Ōe as recorded in this book was applauded by none other than Ōe himself, who called it, “the best and last critique.” In 1995, Kato published Haisengo-ron (After the Defeat), a treatise on the war dead and Yasukuni Shrine that caused great sensation and split public opinion both within Japan and abroad. From then on, the postwar era became a central theme for Kato in parallel with his literary criticism. He continued to be an active and foremost voice in discussions on postwar Japanese society. In the 2010s, he contributed opinion articles to the New York Times. Over the course of his career, Kato wrote on a wide range of subjects—from literature and culture in general, to linguistic theory and philosophy—in a singular voice and style. He was a multi-award-winning writer, receiving the Shincho Gakugei Prize for Gengo hyougenhou kougi (Lectures on Linguistic Expression)*, the Sei Ito Literary Prize for Haisengo-ron (After the Defeat), the Takeo Kuwabara Prize for academic writing for Shousetsu no mirai (The Future of the Novel)* and Tekusuto kara tōku hanarete (Leaving the Text Behind)*. Other major works include Amerika no kage (In America’s Shadow)* and Murakami Haruki ierō peiji (The Haruki Murakami Yellow Pages)*.