Children Narrate Their Father’s World War Ⅱ Experiences - A case of rural Akita, Japan

Abstract

Because of the aging, people who narrate the memories of the World War Ⅱ have changed to the next generation who were born during and after the war. This paper focuses on the people who try to narrate their fathers’ war experiences to the next generation. They were born during the World War II in Akita prefecture, Japan. Their stories of the war are mainly about their fathers’ experiences as a soldier, at the same time, it also includes their own family stories such as wife and children. Because of the narrators’ positions as fathers’ children, their stories tell situations and thoughts of the families waiting for their fathers’ return. This paper examines the meaning of those activities through recoding two persons’ war stories.