Trauma in the Lives of Japanese Children

[Sara Newman]

During the lecture, someone mentioned the telephone booth to nowhere that was erected in Japan after 3/11 to create a way for people mourning to gain a sense of closure. I’d heard about that previously on a This American Life Episode, and hearing it mentioned again made me wonder about how children in Japan who endured the ordeals of World War II or the 2011 natural disaster healed or are healing from the trauma they experienced. If, because of cultural expectations, the adults were unwilling to talk about these issues and their reactions to them with their children, how do the children process these events? 

 

Additionally, I know that epigenetic science has shown that children whose parents were affeted by the Holocaust or 9/11 suffer from intergenerational trauma even if they weren’t alive during the event itself. I wonder beyond the effects of radiation exposure how children could be genetically or emotionally affected by their parents’ experiences of these traumatic events.