Shikata ga nai
Encyclopedia
, ɕi̥kata ɡa nai, is a Japanese language
phrase meaning "it can't be helped" or "nothing can be done about it". , ɕoː ɡa nai is an alternative.
. Thus, when Emperor Shōwa was asked, in his first ever press conference given in Tokyo in 1975, what he thought of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, he answered: "It's very regrettable that nuclear bombs were dropped and I feel sorry for the citizens of Hiroshima but it couldn't be helped because that happened in wartime."
In Asian American Women: The "Frontiers" Reader, author Debbie Storrs states:
The phrase also can have negative connotations, as some may perceive the lack of reaction to adversity as complacence, both to social and political forces. In a Business Week article, a Western businessman says of Japanese people:
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
phrase meaning "it can't be helped" or "nothing can be done about it". , ɕoː ɡa nai is an alternative.
Cultural associations
The phrase has been used by many western writers to describe the ability of the Japanese people to maintain dignity in the face of an unavoidable tragedy or injustice, particularly when the circumstances are beyond their control. Historically, it has been applied to situations in which masses of Japanese people as a whole have been made to endure, including the Allied Occupation of Japan and the internment of Japanese Americans and Japanese CanadiansJapanese Canadian internment
Japanese Canadian internment refers to confinement of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II. The internment began in December 1941, following the attack by carrier-borne forces of Imperial Japan on American naval and army facilities at Pearl Harbor...
. Thus, when Emperor Shōwa was asked, in his first ever press conference given in Tokyo in 1975, what he thought of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, he answered: "It's very regrettable that nuclear bombs were dropped and I feel sorry for the citizens of Hiroshima but it couldn't be helped because that happened in wartime."
In Asian American Women: The "Frontiers" Reader, author Debbie Storrs states:
The Japanese phrase shikata ga nai, or "it can't be helped," indicates cultural norms over which one has little control... This notion of suffering in part stems from shikata ga nai: failing to follow cultural norms and social conventions led to a life of little choice but endurance of suffering.
The phrase also can have negative connotations, as some may perceive the lack of reaction to adversity as complacence, both to social and political forces. In a Business Week article, a Western businessman says of Japanese people:
He encourages Japanese not to succumb to the shikata ga nai mentality but to get angry and start behaving like citizens. "Japanese people listen to me because I'm always pushing what the possibilities are and how things can change... to ensure positive economic and political prospects..."
Literary references
- Jeanne Wakatsuki HoustonJeanne Wakatsuki HoustonJeanne Wakatsuki Houston is an American writer. Her writings are mostly focused on the ethnic diversity of the United States...
, in her book Farewell to ManzanarFarewell to ManzanarFarewell to Manzanar is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. It was adapted in the form of a television movie in 1976 starring Yuki Shimoda, Nobu McCarthy, Pat Morita, and Mako....
, devoted a chapter to the concept, and used it to explain why the Japanese Americans internedJapanese American internmentJapanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
in the US during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
did not put up more of a struggle against the restrictive conditions and policies put upon them. - In the historical mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
Barefoot GenBarefoot Genis a Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen lives with his family...
, many of the citizens in HiroshimaHiroshimais the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
use the phrase "Shikata ga nai" to explain why they accept the military rule, and the acceptance of the below-poverty conditions that cause many of their citizens to starve. - In the Mars trilogyMars trilogyThe Mars trilogy is a series of award-winning science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicles the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the intensely personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries...
science fiction novels by Kim Stanley RobinsonKim Stanley RobinsonKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
, the phrase is translated as "there is no other choice". Introduced by the Japanese character Hiroko Ai, it becomes common slang among the first Martian colonists, and is used when the constraints of their situation allow only one course of action. - James ClavellJames ClavellJames Clavell, born Charles Edmund DuMaresq Clavell was an Australian-born, British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war...
's ShōgunShogun (novel)Shōgun is a 1975 novel by James Clavell. It is the first novel of the author's Asian Saga. A major bestseller, by 1990 the book had sold 15 million copies worldwide...
uses this phrase as a subtheme, although there it is rendered as "Shigata ga nai", which is a misspelling – there is no rendakuRendakuis a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word...
in the term. - Graham SalisburyGraham SalisburyGraham Salisbury is an American author. He has written many books including Under the Blood Red Sun, his most famous novel. He lives with his family in Lake Oswego, Oregon....
's Under the Blood Red SunUnder the Blood Red SunUnder the Blood Red Sun is a Scott O'Dell Award-winning historical novel by Graham Salisbury, published in 1994. It details the life of Tomi, a Japanese-American boy, and his family during World War II, when Americans of Japanese descent were being sent to internment camps. Tomi lives in Hawaii,...
uses this phrase for a chapter title. - Shikata ga-nai was referenced in John HerseyJohn HerseyJohn Richard Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and journalist considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling devices of the novel are fused with non-fiction reportage...
's Hiroshima after efforts to assist fatally injured hibakushaHibakushaThe surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called , a Japanese word that literally translates to "explosion-affected people"...
, or survivors of either of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ceased. - David GutersonDavid GutersonDavid Guterson is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist.-Early life:David Guterson was born May 4, 1956, in Seattle, Washington. During his childhood, he attended Seattle public schools and later attended the University of Washington where he earned Bachelor of...
's Snow Falling on CedarsSnow Falling on CedarsSnow Falling on Cedars is a 1994 novel written by American writer David Guterson. Guterson, who was a teacher at the time, wrote the book in the early morning hours over a ten-year period...
provides a good example of the concept of "Shikata ga nai" through the novel's Japanese-American victim, Kabuo Miyamoto, who believes he cannot change the circumstances surrounding his unfair trial due to prejudices remaining from World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
External links
- "Shikata ga nai" an article from Time magazine on Allied Occupation of Japan (October 8, 1945)