Defying the Nation

DiNitto examines how Japanese literature and film challenge images of Japan as isolated or uniquely defined by nuclear catastrophe. While narratives around Hiroshima and Nagasaki often emphasise Japan&s;s singular victimhood, other nations have also suffered from nuclear bombs and testing. The 2011 Fukushima disaster, likewise, has had lasting transnational repercussions across Asia and the Pacific. Drawing on Elizabeth DeLoughrey&s;s notion of the ‘isolate’, the chapter argues that Japan&s;s nuclear history is embedded in global contexts. Cultural responses reveal specificities, but they do not confirm a timeless national essence, instead exposing the interconnectedness of nuclear violence worldwide.