The A-bomb Victims' Plea for Cosmopolitan Commemoration: Toward Reconciliation and World Peace

• Main Author: SAITO, Hiro
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Collective memory; cosmopolitanism; nationalism; reconciliation; Asian Studies; Peace and Conflict Studies; Sociology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1886; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3143/viewcontent/0725513615592983__1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper critically revisits the A-bomb victims' plea for cosmopolitan commemoration that takes humanity, rather than nationality, as a primary frame of reference. To this end, I first elaborate the nature of cosmopolitan commemoration espoused by A-bomb victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in comparison with another form of cosmopolitan commemoration pertaining to the Holocaust victims. I then analyze limitations in these cosmopolitan commemorations and explore how they can be transcended. In light of my critical analysis, I argue that genuinely cosmopolitan commemoration, a prerequisite for reconciliation and world peace, will appear on the horizon if the commemorations of the two events are synthesized with the help of historians debate that continuously subjects the logic of nationalism to critical reflections. This synthesis has the potential to help people envision cosmopolitan politics - cosmopolitics - where they can engage in peaceful but agonistic struggles, not as enemies but as fellow humans, in collectively governing their lives in today's war-torn world.