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Accepted Paper:
Enemy or victim: coverage of WW II Japan in Soviet media by the case of Estonian newspapers (1945-1955)
Ene Selart
(University of Tartu)
The war between the Soviet Union and Japan ended in 1945 with a very controversial victory over a country that had suffered already the attack of the atomic bombs and had surrendered to the United States. The Soviet media coverage was in the same way a vexed depiction of a victim and an enemy.
Paper long abstract:
The Second World War between the Soviet Union and Japan ended in September of 1945 with a very controversial victory over a country that had suffered already the attack of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and had earlier surrendered to the United States. The coverage of this military conflict in the Soviet media was in the same way a vexed depiction of Japan as a victim and an enemy at the same time.
The current paper is based on the textual analysis of the Soviet Estonian newspapers “Rahva Hääl” (“Voice of Nation) and “Noorte Hääl” (“Voice of Youth) from 1945-1955 by the research of the content of the editorials, feature and opinion stories (n=53) how the perception of Japan was on the one had as a sufferer of the atomic attacks and on the other hand that of the defeat over aggressive and militaristic samurai nation. The examples are drawn from the phrases and metaphors used in the war narratives. In addition an overview is given how the historical revanchism derived from the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) was depicted in the printed word.