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Conclusion: Fukushima 
Bungaku
 Genre 
In addition to Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Treat and Tachibana perspectives this article also 
offers further contribution to the description of the 
Fukushima bungaku 
by keeping in 
mind the diversification in poems and prose (fiction, non-fiction and mixed-up literary 
approaches to the catastrophe). In particular, a new trend in the poetic production is 
represented by the popular poet Wag
ō
Ry
ō
ichi who, soon after 11th March, started 
publishing on his Twitter profile poems about Fukushima situation; his production, 
called 
net-poetry
as a paramount word of “network” and “poetry”, can be conceived 
as the missing link between social media (as a worldwide platform to share traumatic 
feeling in real time) and the lyricism attributed to the poetic production.
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According to a work of testimony, with a slight revision of Treat’s approach it is 
possible to distinguish: 
- 
authors 
who 
directly 
witness 
3/11 
or 
not; 
- authors who became spokesmen for friends, relatives, acquaintance;
- authors who chose silence or took action in other ways (for instance by participating 
in no-nuclear energy movements). 
In this respect, as far as this study has been developed, a notable tendency in authorial 
choice between fictional and non-fictional format has been observed: authors who 
directly witnessed 11th March earthquake and tsunamis or suffered from the 
evacuation measures approved by Japanese government to limit the radiation 
exposure in the neighbouring area of Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, show a 
preference for private accounts that directly depicts the catastrophe, while 
fictionalised works are the major response of those authors who can not give a 
personal testimony of the event.
The Sartre-Barthes debate regarding the importance of a 
littérature engagée
33
 
is 
directly correlated to authorial responses to 3/11 and must be born in mind too, 
especially while dealing with the purpose of author's writing. For example: can a 
work for entertainment labeled as 
tsukaisute
been re-evaluated for its devotion to 
post-Fukushima trauma? The question here is clearly referring to Yoshimoto 
Banana’s
Suiito hiaafutaa
『 ス イ ー ト ・ ヒ ア ア フ タ ー 』
(“Sweet Hereafter”, 
2011)
34
, just to give an example. Moreover, according to Kimura, the literary 
production can be divided into two categories: the one written after 3/11 (which 
consists in the majority part) and works started before 3/11 but ended up with a 
change in plot due to 11th March catastrophe. A third analysis can be conducted on 
the authorial responses, as to say, authors who devoted themselves to literary 
32
Further investigation about Wag
ō
Ry
ō
ichi’s 
net-poetry
can be found in De Pieri, V. (2014), (2016).
33
“committed literature”, see Sartre (1985).
34
Yoshimoto, B. (2011). 
Suiito Hiaafutaa.
T
ō
ky
ō
: Gent
ō
sha.

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productions focused on 3/11; or, the case of authors who, after writing a work on the 
topic, turned back to their “common” themes; eventually, a periodical return on post-
Fukushima matters can be noticed too. An other categorisation is a remark on the 
popularity of authors in question, already famous before 11th March or not. To 
conclude, literary works can also be divided by topics, considering the 
Daishinsai
or 
the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi as the main feature although works written 
on both themes are also available.
This study represents a first overview of the 
“literary of the catastrophe” as a canon and an attempt to define the newborn 
Fukushima bungaku
, especially in relation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic 
bombing experiences. Anyway, further investigation and an implementation of the 
selected sources would be the right path to follow in order to revalue this Japanese 
aesthetic literary response to trauma. 

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