Transplanting Resistance: How the French Résistance Shaped Postwar Japanese Literary Debates

ABSTRACT This article traces the emergence and development of debates on “resistance” in Japanese literary discourse from the immediate aftermath of Japan's defeat in 1945 to the conclusion and implementation of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. In the turbulent postwar literary scene, writers and critics vigorously pursued questions of wartime responsibility, repeatedly emphasizing the alleged absence of resistance within Japanese literature during the war. In response to this perceived historical “blank,” French Résistance literature was introduced as an exemplary model, and an idealized notion of resistance—understood as a collective, national movement—was conceptually transplanted into the Japanese context. By examining how this transplanted model came to structure postwar discussions of resistance, this article argues that the framework itself imposed significant limitations on what could be seen and articulated. Precisely because resistance was imagined primarily in national terms, it became closely aligned with emerging postwar visions of the nation‐state, while the legacies of empire and colonial domination were rendered largely invisible. Through a close analysis of postwar criticism, literary debates, and key texts, this article critically reassesses both the possibilities and the blind spots of postwar Japanese resistance discourse.