The Inheritance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Rethinking the Bombings towards a Post-Survivor World (SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 135037847X ISBN 13: 9781350378476

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic (UK), 2026

Synopsis

With 2025 marking the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this timely study focuses on the challenge of keisho or ‘inheritance’ and the way a new generation of scholars and activists is re-examining the meaning of the A-bomb and the 80-year history of commemoration and activism in the stricken cities. Using a team of scholars based in the USA and Japan, many of who are academics from this new generation, The Inheritance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki takes a critical look at the problem of inheritance and the current transitory moment in A-bomb commemoration and nuclear scholarship by looking at a range of historical topics from the 80-year history of post-atomic Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and beyond. The book does this by: examining historical memory in a way that disengages the two cities from a Japanese-national memory perspective by looking at global connections, on one hand, and the local history of the two cities; re-thinking the history of survivors, their experience, and their movement; and, finally, exploring material culture and the problem of inheritance and legacy.

About this title

About the Authors

Maika Nakao is Associate Professor at Hiroshima University, Japan. She received her Ph.D. in history of science from the University of Tokyo and is an expert on the nuclear history of Japan. She worked at Nagasaki University from 2018 to 2021 and co-edited the book, Seventy-five Years after the Atomic Bombing: Tracing Records and Memories of Nagasaki (Shoshi Tsukumo, 2021).

Masaya Nemoto is Assistant Professor of Historical Sociology and Qualitative Research Methods at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan. His work focuses on the memory of the Asia–Pacific War and nuclear catastrophes in Japan, including the life stories of hibakusha. He has received awards for his book Hiroshima paradokusu: sengo Nihon no hankaku to jindo ishiki [Hiroshima paradox: anti-nuclearism and humanitarianism in postwar Japan] (2018).

Ran Zwigenberg is Professor of Asian Studies and History at Pennsylvania State University, USA. He has published multiple works on Hiroshima, beginning with his prize-winning monograph, Hiroshima: The Rise of Global Memory Culture (2014), which addresses survivor politics, trauma, and heritage issues.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic (UK)
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 135037847X
• ISBN 13: 9781350378476
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Ran Zwigenberg, Masaya Nemoto, Maika Nakao