Working Through Weightlessness in Postwar Japanese Tactical Wargames

Abstract

The pleasure of wargame relies on faithful embodiment of military history. Scenario- based tactical wargames balance realism against playability. That said, wargame realism claims fidelity only to the form of the war, not its discourse. It is, therefore, significant to interrogate different approaches to realism in order to understand the cultural implications of wargames. This paper examines the embodiments and descriptions of the Pacific War in both U.S. and Japanese wargames. Through close readings of War in the Pacific (1978) by Simulations Publications, Inc. and Battle of Pearl Harbor (1984) by Epoch, this paper explores how the board wargame medium operates as a space for coping with traumatic past, materialization of history, and sublimation of forbidden colonial desire.