From bare life to civic passion: Takashi Morita’s social engagement as a hibakusha
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Takashi Morita’s autobiography, The Last Message from Hiroshima: What I saw and how I survived the atomic bomb (2017), offers a crucial examination of jōnetsu as a civic passion, defining the experience of a hibakusha, an atomic bomb survivor and peace activist who was excluded from state assistance for decades. This study mobilizes Giorgio Agamben's concept of homo sacer to analyze how Morita’s narrative documents the reduction of the individual to "bare life" under sovereign violence. His memoirs, which contribute to genbaku bungaku (atomic bomb literature), reveal the initial limitations of Japanese state assistance for hibakusha living abroad. Ultimately, Morita reclaims his political agency through leading the hibakusha movement in Brazil, transforming his suffering into a collective commitment
DOI: 10.5209/ecao.105799
Author: Lilian Yamamoto
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225749266
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