East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Forgetting Traumatic War Memory: A Case Study Of The Japanese Anime Series "The Big O", Naomi Chiba

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses the issues of traumatic war memory concerning remembering and forgetting as presented construction of war memory in popular culture by closely examining the Japanese television anime series The Big O. The thesis proposes that the story told in The Big O can be seen as a vehicle for understanding why the Japanese wished to forget traumatic war memories related to the defeat of Japan in World War II. The Big O is a science fiction story that is set in a postwar defeated society. The protagonist of the story is Roger Smith, who searches for his …