Atomized Tears: A Comparative Analysis of the Collective Remembering of the Chernobyl Disaster in Ukraine and the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan

Abstract

On more than one occasion, since the first atomic weapon test in 1945, mankind has only barely avoided Armageddon, and several of these nuclear near-disasters are particularly notable: the only nuclear weapons used in warfare were deployed by the United States in the Second World War against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Another atomic first was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986; the Chernobyl disaster was, at the time, an unprecedented nuclear accident. These events are all unparalleled historical phenomena, and the collective remembering of these tragic events in both Japan and Ukraine provide a rich opportunity for comparative analysis. Besides performing a comparative analysis of the collective remembering of the respective atomic tragedies, it is necessary to compare how these tragedies are officially memorialized by the affected states. Officially-sanctioned memorials are a vital component in any nation’s collective remembering. This thesis explores the similarities of the collective remembering of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and of the Chernobyl disaster, and it also comparatively analyzes the individual and collective psychological effects of these tragedies. While the bombings of Japan were a deliberate wartime decision and the Chernobyl disaster was an accident, this thesis additionally demonstrates that collective remembering of these nuclear events is centered around a struggle to come to terms with an invisible object with incomprehensible destructive potential: the atom.