Bullets of a Defeated Nation: The 1946 Shibuya Incident

In this chapter Adam Cathcart turns our attention to the black markets and shattered streets of the city formerly known as Imperial Tokyo. In so doing he zeros in on a violent confrontation and riot in the Shibuya district in July 1946, tracing an expanding historical arc as the ripples of the violent confrontation between Japanese and former imperial subjects (Korean and Taiwanese) radiated out. Drawing on the transnational threads of the incident Cathcart tells a story which provides new insights into the American Occupation, post-1945 Sino-Japanese relations, and highlights how reports of the incident played out across East Asia. In so doing we see the realities of empire’s end on the streets of Tokyo, and gain new insights into the lived experience of multi-ethnic empire. In Cathcart’s hands, the violence of empire is brought to life in the streets and back alleys of occupied and impoverished Tokyo.