The Division of Postwar Japanese Literature: Witnesses and Non-Witnesses of War, and the Philosophy of Ishiba’s 80-Year Reflection

This paper analyzes how the presence or absence of direct war experience shaped the structure of postwar Japanese literature, and integrates the philosophical implications of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s “80-Year Reflection on the Postwar Era.” The study di- vides writers into two primary lineages: those who saw the war (Waterfield realists like Mizuki Shigeru and Ooka Shohei) and those who imagined it (postwar constructors like Mishima Yukio and Ishihara Shintaro). By juxtaposing testimony and imagination, this paper argues that the ethics of narration in Japan is inseparable from the metaphysics of memory, and that Ishiba’s reflection reactivates the very question: “Who has the right to speak after silence?”