This study aims to clarify the transition of collective memory and recognition
about the Great Kanto Earthquake through the exploration of the narratives
of an academic figure. In a time when the collective memory of this past disaster
has been fading, this report made it clear how the opinion of the intellectual has
changed and why. The intellectual in question is Ikutaro Shimizu, who experienced
the Great Kanto Earthquake. Known as a prominent writer, he continued
to express his opinion on the Great Kanto Earthquake. He described himself an
“après un tremblement de terre”（ post-earthquake） writer, playing on words of
the après guerre（ post-war） generation. After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake
and its aftermath, Shimizu’s opinion on the disaster has drawn public
attention again. The aim of this report is to trace the manner in which Shimizu
talked about the disaster and how it changed.
Before the end of the Second World War, Shimizu rarely discussed the
Great Kanto Earthquake. In the days after the Second World War, he began to
write essays on the huge earthquake. In other words, he developed his own
interpretation of the earthquake in contrast with his war experience. As he recognized
that the Great Kanto Earthquake had been downplayed by society at
that time, he wrote about the Earthquake over and over as one of his important
personal experiences. Although he attempted to evoke collective remembrance
of the Earthquake in 1960, he quit writing about the Earthquake after all.
It is in and after 1970 that his narrative seemed to change. He came to deal
with the Great Kanto Earthquake as a matter of society or the nation, not as an
unforgettable personal event. He modified his opinion on the Earthquake in line
with the collective memory shared with people of the same period. This report
examines Shimizu’s argument on the Earthquake and its changes, and points
out the connection between personal memories and collective memory.
