Contamination, Infection, Disgust: Atomic Bomb Fiction, the Affective Proliferation of Disgust, and Dystopian Literature

Abstract

This paper examines the dynamics of disgust as portrayed in the work of Japanese novelist Inoue Mitsuharu in his writing on the atomic bomb, approaching patterns of disgust from the perspective of contamination and infection as it transfers and proliferates between others, heterogeneous minority groups, and heterogeneous communities. Through this examination, the paper also explores the possibility of defining atomic bomb fiction as dystopian literature. Inoues atomic bomb fiction, including House of Hands (Te no ie, 1960) and Crowds on Earth (Chi no mure, 1963), clearly lay out the processes and structures by which the generation and proliferation of disgust feeds into social discrimination. The affect of disgust, amplified by the synergy between a fear of infection through the contaminated bodies of atomic bomb survivors and an evolution-based intuition that wishes to avoid the hereditary transmission of illness or disability to ones descendants, goes on to trigger socially discriminatory practices against atomic bomb survivors, including within marriage. This disgust is most forcefully enacted on women, particularly in relation to the idea and fact of blood. The unstoppable hemorrhaging of female atomic bomb survivors accelerates the affect of disgust prompted by repulsion against blood and bodily fluids, and sheds light on the female entity as abject, as opposed to subject or object. Notwithstanding the differences in discrimination that exist between different minority communities, the reality of disgust proves to be most harshly felt by women. The atomic bombings and the literature that sprang out of this experience, make it clear that disgust and discrimination are not simply matters involving a small exceptional minority, but rather a ubiquitous issue that can impact anyone through external contingent circumstances such as unforeseen disaster and environmental change. The setting of the atomic bombing and its aftermath aligns with the characteristics of dystopia, in which human efforts at order and reason are disturbed and subverted so that human liberty and the diversity of lived experience comes to be negated, and uncertainty reigns. Inoues atomic bomb fictions testify to the need for intersectional and convergent discussions involving atomic bomb, pollution, disease, and post-3.11 literature in terms of dystopian and minority perspectives. The dynamics of severe disgust among minority communities including atomic bomb survivors, discriminated burakumin, Koreans, and Hidden Christians (Kakure Kirishitan) serve to show the difficulties involved in creating empathy and solidarity between minority groups. In this sense, what is called for in this era of hate is a large-scale reconceptualization that will strike a balance between the human and the inhuman, and between anti-anthropocentrism and the protection of human rights.