Japan: A Pacified Heroism

Through the decades of rejection of the military and militarism since the end of WWII, postwar politics has long discouraged the Japanese public from celebrating traditional classical war-fighting heroism, unlike other militaries of the West. Overt esteem for the JSDF has similarly been discouraged under this environment uniquely antipathetic to any combat. Instead, military heroism in postwar Japan has been characterized by the non-militarised activities of the JSDF, the depoliticized narratives of its military history, and romanticized historical narratives. These traits align with the post-heroic heroism newly emerging in other Western militaries. Still, post-heroic heroism is not new to Japan but has been present since the start of the postwar period. The first section explains public attitudes towards historical war heroes from 1945 through the 2000s. Given the absence of a war-fighting military and a political environment in which combat heroism was taboo, there could be no actual JSDF heroism. Instead, romantic narratives of the tragic loss of war heroes were developed and consumed by the Japanese public. The second section explains a decisive turning point in this trend in the aftermath of the East Japan Great Earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.