Reckoning with the Past in Attack on Titan

By Anonymous

    How individuals deal with cultural trauma can be seen through the media, and that is the case with Japanese people and the anime Attack on Titan. The manga series Attack on Titan was created and illustrated by Hajime Isayama ("Attack on Titan" 2022). The anime adaptation follows the manga closely, and that is what will be referenced throughout the rest of the post. 

    The anime is set in a world where humanity is forced to live in cities enclosed by three giant walls ("Attack on Titan" 2022). The walls protect humans from giant titans that eat them ("Attack on Titan" 2022). The main protagonist Eren vows to kill all titans after his mother was eaten by one of them ("Attack on Titan" 2022). The reasons why the titans exist, or why humanity lives enclosed in walls remains unknown to all ("Attack on Titan" 2022).

    Later seasons of Attack on Titan revealed everything, and that is where the WW2 imagery and symbolism are seen in the anime. The humans that live in the walls are not what remains of humanity (Speelman 2019). These humans are a part of a race called Eldians. The Eldians were a part of the Eldian empire that ruled over the world for over 2,000 years (Speelman 2019). The Eldians had the power of nine unique titans that could be controlled by hosts (Speelman 2019). Through these nine titans, Eldia expanded their territory, committed atrocities, and ruled the world (Speelman 2019). 

    The turning point in the Eldian empire happened when the 145th King, King Fritz, felt ashamed of the legacy and atrocities committed by the empire, so he devised a plan that led to the downfall of Eldia (Speelman 2019). After the downfall of the empire, King Fritz took his remaining subjects to an island separate from the rest of the world and he called it Paradiso (Speelman 2019).  On the island, through the power of the titans, he erased the memory of his subjects and created three walls to enclose the remaining Eldians from the rest of the world (Speelman 2019). This was King Fritz’s idea of atonement for the pain and suffering that Eldia caused to the world (Speelman 2019). On the island, Eldians would live ignorantly and blissfully without knowing their history, and separate from the world (Speelman 2019). 

    Through this background information of the anime, the main connection can be made: Eldia represents Imperial Japan, and Paradiso represents Post World War II Japan. Imperial Japan committed various atrocities to expand its territory and gain resources ("Imperial Japan" 2022). The height of the violence and sins occurred during World War II ("Imperial Japan" 2022). Similarly, Eldia was also an empire that used its military force of the titans to enforce their power and dominance over the world. When the United States slowly reclaimed the territories of Japan, and after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered ("Imperial Japan" 2022.) In 1947, with American involvement, a new constitution was enacted for Japan, thus signaling the end of Imperial Japan ("Imperial Japan" 2022). This also resulted in the Japanese defense force ("Imperial Japan" 2022). Likewise, the downfall of Eldia resulted in them losing all of their territories, and them being enclosed in the small island of Paradiso. 

    The similarities continue with how both Eldia/Paradiso and Japan sought to reckon with the past of their empires. Akiko Hashimoto’s book The Moral Recovery of Defeated Nations contains important concepts of analysis of Japan’s culture of memory. Hashimoto states, “The culture of defeat is fueled by a shared desire to recover from the setback even if people’s specific visions for the future are not identical” (2015:123). Japan lost the war, but people differ in how they want to move forward. Hashimoto outlines three pathways for Japan to move forward: the nationalist approach, the reconciliation approach, and the pacifist approach (2015:123).

    Both the nationalist and pacifist approaches are seen in Attack on Titan. The nationalist approach is seen in the current events in the anime. Eren plans to destroy the world outside of Eldia and restore the Eldian nation (Speelman 2019). While Eren’s nationalist approach is much more violent, Japan’s nationalist approach does exist. For example, former prime minister of Japan Shinzo Abe has expressed his wishes to revise the constitution of Japan to recover the prestige and respect that Japan once had (Hashimoto 2015:126). Hashimoto points out that in practical terms for this to happen has to be strengthened and military disempowerment must be ended (2015:126). 

    The pacifist approach is seen through the actions of King Fritz in the anime. He separated the Eldians from the rest of the world and enclosed them so that peace can be maintained (Speelman 2019).  He also erased the memories of the Eldians, so that any feelings of hatred, war, or imperialism would cease to exist (Speelman 2019).  This is similar to how Japan chooses to remain pacifist. Some Japanese citizens follow the pacifist approach by denouncing war and preventing the revision of the constitution (Hashimoto 2015:128). 

    There are many debates online about whether or not Attack on Titan supports nationalism and imperialism. That remains unclear; however, what is clear is that Japanese media tries to show the past of Japan and the many difficulties with moving forward. 

References:

Hashimoto, Akiko. 2015. The Long Defeat: Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Japan. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Speelman, Tom. 2019. “The Fascist Subtext of Attack on Titan Can’t Go Overlooked.” Polygon, June 18. Retrieved May 8, 2022 (https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/18/18683609/attack-on-titan-fascist-nationalist-isayama-hajime-manga-anime). 

Wikipedia 2022. “Attack on Titan.” Retrieved May 8, 2022 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan). 

Wikipedia 2022. “Imperial Japan.” Retrieved May 8, 2022 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan). 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Junzo Shono: How We Remember Gambier

By
Image
When I entered the Special Collections room, I had no idea where to start or what to do. We were given large files of several notable Kenyon alumni, and it was overwhelming. Without a clear understanding of the responsibilities we were tasked with, we each selected a different file without giving reason or pause as to who we selected. For one reason or another, Junzo Shono’s name caught my eye. I had never heard of the man, but after taking a class on Japanese Literature last fall, I was curious as to who he was and his involvement with the College. Junzo Shono, an acclaimed Japanese writer, first came to Gambier in 1957, where he spent a year in the College capturing and describing the mundane moments of everyday life (Creel, 2022). He would eventually publish these memories in the form of a novel titled “Gambia Taizaiki” (Sojourn in Gambier. He was born in Osaka, Japan on February 9th, 1921, and studied at Osaka University of Foreign Languages for four years, and later studied at Kyu...
Read more

Archival and Canon Memory: Understanding Our Present Through Our Past

By
Image
  This week, one of the many artifacts my group examined, was an old issue of The Collegian. The main story of this issue was the reconstruction of the Brown Family Environmental Center. This edition of the Collegian was significant because it detailed certain transformations being made to the center that would give it more focus on academics and incorporating student education as a part of the BFEC. For example, the article focuses on the construction of a new building that will operate as a hub for both student labs, as well as environmental education programs for the public, which the BFEC is now well known for. This article is also historically significant as it was written right after the BFEC was renamed to the Brown Family Environmental Center. It is important to examine sources like these, as they offer what the earliest perspectives and actions of what the BFEC were, which is interesting to compare to modern activities of the environmental center. This week we also read an...
Read more

Hope, Suffering, and The Kenyon College Campus Guide

By
Image
  Attached above is a screenshot of “The Kenyon College Campus Guide”, which is a near-comprehensive list of buildings that have belonged to the College and Village of Gambier since 1824. Although my group is curating something about the future of the Hill, our first meeting mainly involved discussions of its past. To this end, we tried to develop a picture of what the Hill physically looked like in the past 100 years by reviewing photographs of buildings, construction plans, and the Campus Guide, which you can see above. If you were to review the entire guide, you’d see that under the name of every building is a description of when it was built, what it was used (or being used) for, and when (if) it was destroyed. In the context of this week’s reading, these descriptions call the terms “communities of memory” and “communities of hope” to mind. According to Bellah et al. (1985, 2011), a “community of memory…tell[s]...stories of shared suffering” and orients us towards “future co...
Read more