Description
International Relations (IR) scholars often examine how collective memory of nuclear violence is depoliticised, yet the means of violence - nuclear weapons themselves - have been less explored in this process. This paper investigates one specific mode of depoliticization in postwar Japan: technocratic silence. This term refers to the tendency to frame nuclear violence in purely bureaucratic and scientific terms, thereby sidelining memories of nuclear violence. Using official and civilian documents from 1945 to 1975, I conduct a genealogical analysis of the term 災(sai; disaster) – a term primarily reserved for natural calamities. I argue that the term 災 became a key pathway to depoliticise nuclear violence by categorising the atomic bombings as a generic, apolitical disaster. This normalisation enabled the Japanese government to construct a hierarchy of nuclearity in its narrative of victimhood. By applying災 to nuclear uses while simultaneously distinguishing between "accidents," "tests," and "possession," the government's rhetoric diverts criticism toward external nuclear testing while implicitly normalising and legitimising nuclear possession by major powers. This paper ultimately contributes to memory studies and critical nuclear studies.
