Articles
Transition of Peace Consciousness in Peace Declarations
2021 Volume 72 Issue 2 Pages 118-134
Details
2021 Volume 72 Issue 2 Pages 118-134
The purpose of this study was to investigate the transition of peace consciousness in Atom-Bombed cities（Hiroshima and Nagasaki）based on quantitative text analysis of peace declarations from 1947 to 2019. Texts of declarations were collected from official homepages of city governments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This study focused on the frequency of words and made a comparison between Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Findings are summarized into two points.
First, it is common for both cities that words related to the war and nuclear problem appear frequently. Based on the transition of word frequency, words related to the war appeared frequently at the beginning of the post-war era. However, gradually, the frequency of words related to the nuclear problem has increased. This change has occurred because time softened the weariness of war and the threat of nuclear weapons caused by the Cold War was shared widely.
Second, the differences between the two cities were determined. Words related to support for atomic bomb victims were observed particularly in the declaration of Hiroshima. The characteristics of the declaration of Nagasaki is the frequency of words related to Christianity. At the beginning of the post-war era, the image of Hiroshima related to a social movement for support for atomic bomb victims and the image of Nagasaki related to Christianity spread nationwide. Based on the transition of word frequency, the analysis revealed that the period in which these words appeared in the declarations is later than the period in which these images were shared nationwide. This time lag is interpreted as unconscious acceptance of the nationwide images of these cities.
In conclusion, these findings are interpreted as an interaction between Atom-Bombed cities and Japan. The regional peace consciousness related to the renunciation of war and nuclear abolition has spread nationwide. Furthermore, nationwide consciousness has likely influenced the consciousness in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
