Shared memory is one of the many catalysts in the creation and comprehension of a group identity. Keywords: manga, Itō Junji, collective memory, historical trauma, post-war Japan. Tadashi’s confrontations with the living-dead can be viewed as a metaphorical discourse on the individual’s confrontation with collective memory. This is a reflection of the integration of collective memory, particularly the fraught and painful memories of the Second World War, which, for those who were born after 1980, have been the targets of both textbook debates and criticism from both China and Korea, into an individual’s worldview. His lack of memory may have excluded him from the immediate effects of the past, but not from its repercussions. Tadashi’s limited understanding of the war and its aftermath, gained largely through second or third hand descriptions from family members or by official accounts, proves ineffective in allowing him to navigate a precarious world. This series uses a dreamlike narrative and visual structure to describe the experience of a young, middle-class Tokyoite named Tadashi who finds himself struggling to survive in a world where the ghosts of the Second World War have inhabited the corpses of sea creatures and have staged a massive invasion of the Japanese archipelago. An example of this phenomenon is the manga series Gyo, created by the manga artist Itō Junji from 2001 to 2002. A number of art forms, from literature to television, have plumbed the depths of shared memory and have not only entertained their audience, but have also discussed the impact of history on modern life. Historical trauma and collective memory have been a rich vein of creative output in postwar Japanese media and culture.

Junji gyo