TY - JOUR

T1 - Between War and Peace, Past and Future

T2 - Experiencing the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

AU - Brescó De Luna, Ignacio

AU - Li, Yuanhang

AU - Wagoner, Brady

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is widely known as a universal symbol of peace,but there have not been studies of how people actually experience and interpret it.This article presents a detailed case study of a visit to the memorial by using aninnovative methodology based on the use of subjective cameras (subcams). Resultsshow that despite the monolithic idea of peace that the memorial officially repre-sents, it is experienced and interpreted in terms of a constant tension which exposesconflicts in post-war Japan memory politics. The dichotomies of war/peace, death/life, past/future, and old /new emerge as part of the participant’s encounter withdifferent situations during his visit. This is particularly clear where he perceivesborder zones and points of intersection. The article concludes by interpreting thesedichotomies through the notion of themata, as elementary dichotomies that under-lie a social debate around a specific topic. Specifically, two themata are proposed:one revolving around the temporal problematisation of the past and the future inthe memory politics of the A-Bomb, and the other revolving around the spatialdichotomy between the old and the new underlying Hiroshima’s urban renewal.

AB - Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is widely known as a universal symbol of peace,but there have not been studies of how people actually experience and interpret it.This article presents a detailed case study of a visit to the memorial by using aninnovative methodology based on the use of subjective cameras (subcams). Resultsshow that despite the monolithic idea of peace that the memorial officially repre-sents, it is experienced and interpreted in terms of a constant tension which exposesconflicts in post-war Japan memory politics. The dichotomies of war/peace, death/life, past/future, and old /new emerge as part of the participant’s encounter withdifferent situations during his visit. This is particularly clear where he perceivesborder zones and points of intersection. The article concludes by interpreting thesedichotomies through the notion of themata, as elementary dichotomies that under-lie a social debate around a specific topic. Specifically, two themata are proposed:one revolving around the temporal problematisation of the past and the future inthe memory politics of the A-Bomb, and the other revolving around the spatialdichotomy between the old and the new underlying Hiroshima’s urban renewal.

U2 - 10.1007/s12124-022-09723-2

DO - 10.1007/s12124-022-09723-2

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36261774

VL - 57

SP - 1002

EP - 1023

JO - Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science

JF - Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science

SN - 1932-4502

ER -