Japanese Literature, “After the quake” by Haruki Murakami and it was then filmed in 2007.
In the book: Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City, chapter 5, “Oh No, There goes Tokyo: Recreational Apocalypse and the city in postwar Japanese Popular Culture”, the writer Tsutsui describes Japanese films and anime as “tragic”, “apocalyptic”, “ironic”, “speculative”, while still captivating our audiences in a sense of its thoroughness. Among these monster and imaginative films, Tokyo is the city of imagery which has been destroyed and annihilated by means of human weapons, natural disasters, alien mutation or even unknown supernatural powers. All these behind the scene share a common idea: the fear and insecurity of the Japanese by frequent earthquakes and American atomic bombs throughout history. Such anxiety after war world II motivates the formation of “scar art” that reshapes the aesthetics of sacrifice inside the intimidating mind. Japanese artists have learned to turn their fears into the spiritual message that creates a new futuristic landscape while feeding on the inspirations that capture “an escape into exotic, dangerous situations which have last-minute happy endings” (Page 108, fourth row). This is also the first time Japanese artistic conception becomes prevailing generation by generation, motivating the growth of the economy, political stability, modern construction and the search for authenticity.
Indeed, in my opinion, there is no coincidence but only the destiny that Japanese popular culture becomes the forerunners in the futuristic prophecy. The author reminds me of a piece of Japanese literature called “After the quake” which exactly portrays the “secure horror” of the citizens” that “bury deep in their soul”. The disastrous history has encouraged the Japanese to use visual ways to express their feelings, addresses the demand by words, pictures that are rich in thoughts and humanity. Through these practices of upcoming unpredictable events, we are more or less prepared for trauma, insanity, and catastrophe. And by this, architecture gradually evolved to nothing but the imagination of all the spaces and memories.
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