This study examines how a hibakusha (survivor of the atomic-bomb) start to narrate his/her experience after the end of the war. Although the hibakushas' narrative has been analyzed from the view point of politics and nationalism, this study focuses on the hibakusha as individuals and examined the development of their identity with respect to personal and environmental factor. The analysis revealed that the time when hibakusha start to narrate is related to their degree of suffering. Four distinctive features concerning the content and time when they start to relate their experiences were identified: the narrative for themselves as sufferers in 1950s, the narrative to others who were not sufferers in 1960s and 1970s, the narrative for others who are victims in 1980s, and the narrative for the future generation in 1990s. The hibakusha appears to construct his/her atomic-story of these four types of narratives through the processes of dialogue between the story-teller and the audience. The dialogue in turn is reflection of the characteristics of each time period, the hibakusha's life stage and the social environment which surrounds the hibakusha. Therefore, continuous dialogue exchange acts as a process through which he/she can find a new identity as a "hibakusha".

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This paper analyzed the process by which children who were hospitalized with cancer underwent painful procedures with a focus on the remark "GAMBARE" ("Hold on!"). This study approached to "GAMBARE" from a "here and now" perspective, whereas previous studies tended to generalize and overlook individual experiences. I found that the medical staffs used the word in almost all the situations; while the parents said it to their children once the procedure started, although they were usually told they could not say so. However children suffering from the same disease rarely used the word to each other. Although the pain felt by a child is a private matter, people around him/her cannot be indifferent and become involved in it. I discuss these findings in relation to the following points: 1) to hold on or to accept a painful future, 2) to be negative about a medical procedure or to understand a disease, 3) taking a "here and now" or future perspective to pain.

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In psychology, time is typically represented as a horizontal axis from left to right, and is conceptualized as "the linearprogressivism and irreversibility" and is measured quantitatively as "real entities". In this article, I reconsider the fundamental frame of these concepts compared by the visual narrative "Image Map of Life." I select typical images of time and life, "Flow and Stream", "Arrow", "Cycle" and "Being". Cycle images are related with the concepts of "reflection", "return", "comeback", "rhythm" and "repeat". Being images are related with "waiting", "contemplation" and "readiness". We need multiple concepts of time for psychology, such as Subjective time (A series), Material time (B series), Space-time positioning (C series) and Generating in time (D series). Visual narrative is related with the C series of Time.

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What does it mean to reconsider the principle of "Quality of Life"? "Quality of Life" is discussed in the fields of Terminal Care. Since the word "quality" is deeply connected with the sense of value, the following topics are always argued. They are; (1) what kinds of standard and value the "quality" is determined by, (2) whose viewpoints reflect the "quality," and (3) for whom the quality is. The primary purpose of this research is to clarify the "Quality of Life" for those people at the end of life according to their standard and value and at their viewpoints. In this research, interviews (dialogues) and "Participate Observation" were conduced under the principle of the "Quality of Life" while being with those people. Through the sets of interviews with a terminal cancer patient, this research clarify the "Quality of Life" for people at the end of life under the palliative care was not the same as the conventional clinical study had established. That is, it did not include either physical and mental comfort or acceptance of death against their wish to live. Also, it was revealed that the "Quality of Life" was deeply connected with one's way of life and their consciousness of life and death.

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In psychology, a number of studies have examined ideas of the meaning of life, but no comprehensive model has been developed that integrates philosophical foundations and empirical research. This study constructed an integral model for concepts of the meaning of life using a model construction methodology based on qualitative data. Three models were constructed: Framework (Model I), Element (Model II), and Composition (Model III). Model I was a theoretical framework model based on philosophical, anthropological, and psychological theories. Model II was constructed using categorization data on the meaning of life drawn from various sources in previous studies. Model III was constructed by integrating Models I and II. These models proposed four fundamental principles underlying concepts of the meaning of life: Personal, Relational, Social/universal, and Religious/spiritual. These principles formed a "nested" structure that unfolds from Personal to Relational to Social/universal to Religious/spiritual. In addition, some typical cases were analyzed by assessing structural properties of meaning systems. The model may provide a comprehensive framework for understanding concepts such as "depth" and "breadth" as associated with concepts of the meaning of life.

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The present study investigated the function of gestures in the descriptions of events by preschoolers. Specifically, utilizing McNeill's "Growth Point" theory (2005), I examined how these children's gestures contributed to the creation of contrasts in their spoken discourse. When preschool children describe an event consisting of multiple activities (like playing on a slide), they often make unintended erroneous expressions. Frequently, they begin with the central activity of a sequence of events instead of describing it in chronological order. This study indicates that in descriptions of events, gestures provide the speaker cue(s) for forming their next idea or serve as a resource for speech repair. The results suggest that gestures have at least two functions: 1) a visual-feedback function and 2) a contextcreation function, both of which have been largely overlooked so far. These gestural functions are considered to contribute to the process of utterance formation and can provide an index for assessing the ontogenetic development of language construction.

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In this study, the commitment of listeners when listening to another's story was considered from two perspectives; the "way of listening" and the interaction between the speaker and the listener. In the research session, a speaker told two stories which were retold by the listener. Three cases were selected with differing degrees of transformation in the retold stories, and varying degrees of fluctuation in the retelling performance. Listener A, who transformed the stories the least when retelling them, kept and valued the original stories and showed a basic listening attitude. However, if the speaker finds no difference between the original story and the retold story, the listener's commitment cannot influence the speaker. Listener B, who showed the most fluctuations in retelling the stories, committed not to the story but to the speaker. Listener C, who transformed the stories the most when retelling them, was the "best listener" for the speaker in this investigation. She dived into a story and reproduced it from within. She substantially changed the original story, and in one sense destroyed it, but her deep commitment moved the speaker.

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I examined the roles and functions of teachers in fostering children's self-expression and in guiding and heightening their artistic expression within the class ensemble of an elementary school classroom. The "Educational Connoisseurship and Educational Criticism" (Eisner, 2002/ 1st ed., 1979) was used to generate a model of classroom teaching in which participation in social-cultural practice is brought into the modern school setting. I argue that in the classroom, the teacher can create an ensemble as a social-cultural practice of an autonomous expressive community within the class and can participate in the classroom dialogue as the elder of the ensemble community. Student learning within this community acquires meaning from the following precepts. The expertise of the teacher functions as a model for the children, stimulating their own appreciation and pursuit of musicality. Diversity is adopted as a prime principle, enabling dialogue at an equal level between the teacher and children and promoting mutual recognition, despite differences in musical ability.

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This paper explores the relation between narrative and rationality. Bruner's positive views about the importance of narrative are defended against the negative appraisal of cognitive theories of Kahneman and Tversky and Stanovich. It is argued that whereas narrative is a device for capturing nuance of meaning, cognitive theories identify rationality exclusively with the use of strict or narrow meanings of such logical connectives as and and or meanings that took their specialized form only with the rise of modern Western scientific discourse. Narrative remains the dominant form for expressing rich and diverse, contextually sensitive, meanings.

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