Shamsie: "I was aware that conversation about 9/11 tended to treat it as though that date was the Ground Zero of history, as if it occurred in a vacuum, and as someone who grew up in Pakistan in the 1980s, during the U.S.-Pakistan movement in Afghanistan and the political support given to jihad as an anti-Soviet tool, I couldn't possibly see things that way."
The plot of Burnt Shadows spans 56 years, beginning with the dropping of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki in 1945 and ending a few months after the September 11th terrorist attack in 2001. The novel is set in many different countries that are each experiencing their own political conflicts. This portion of the guide is designed to give you some context on the various political conflicts that are in the background of many of the novel's settings and affect the characters' lives.
"The Yet Unknowing World" (Nagasaki, 9 August 1945)
[Wartime Atmosphere]
- Japan's involvement in World War II is hard to pin down. As Yahiko Koshiro argues in "Japan's World and World War II," Japan was fighting many wars with many different nations: "One can understand Japan's war as a loose (though overlapping) sequence of different wars with different names fought in diverse geopolitical and cultural landscapes."
- There was strict surveillance of citizens in wartime Japan. The suppression of thought and speech was common. Those who criticized the government or the military (like Hiroko's father in Burnt Shadows) were arrested by the Special High police, referred to as "tokko."
- People's lives became increasingly difficult as the war went on. They lived through rationed food and constant fear military of air strikes.
- There was increased suspicion and hostility towards foreigners, especially people from countries at war with Japan. In the wake of the war, it was forbidden to use the language or play the music of the 'hostile countries.'
[The Atomic Bomb]
- The atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killed between 39,000 and 80,000 people. Roughly half of the deaths occurred on the first day. Most of the dead were civilians.
- Nagasaki was a target because it was a major military port, one of Japan's largest shipbuilding and repair centers, and an important producer of naval ordinance.
- The atomic bomb was headed to Kokura but redirected to Nagasaki due to Kokura being obscured with black smoke caused by a firebombing raid the previous day.
- Air-raid alarms went off in Nagasaki at 7:50 am Japanese time. At 8:30 am, an "all clear" signal was issued. At 11:01 am, the bomb was dropped. It exploded at 11:02 am.
- Survivors of the atomic bomb were referred to as "hibakusha." It literally translates in English to "explosion-affected people." Hibakusha and their children were victims of fear-based discrimination and exclusion in post-war Japan.
"Veiled Birds" (Delhi, 1947)
[End of the British Raj]
- The British Empire colonized India (called the British Raj) from 1858 to 1947.
- British colonizers in India kept themselves separate from the Indian population and did not assimilate to Indian culture.
- During the British Raj, India experienced some of the worst famines ever recorded, which were made worse by British policies in India.
- In 1946, mutinies broke out in the armed forces against British rule. They called for new elections in India later that year. There was also discord between Hindus and Muslims, with riots breaking out in Calcutta in August 1946.
- In late 1946, the British government decided to end the British rule of India, primarily because of exhausted resources following World War II and the growing religious tension within the Indian population.
- In early 1947, the British announced their intention to leave and transfer power. There was continued violence between Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal.
[Partition]
- In June 1947, nationalist leaders agreed to Partition the country along religious lines. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new nation of India and the predominantly Muslim areas to the new nation of Pakistan.
- Millions of people, especially those living in border areas, relocated across the newly drawn borders. Many cities broke out in violence, leading to between 200,000 and two million deaths.
- The violent nature of the Partition created an atmosphere of hostility and tension between India and Pakistan that continues to this day.
"Part-Angel Warriors" (Pakistan, 1992-3)
[Islamization in Pakistan]
- Islamization became the primary policy of the Pakistani government under General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled from 1977 until his death in 1988. Zia intended to establish an Islamic state and enforce sharia law.
- Under Zia, religious laws were adopted for government and judicial protocols and civil governance. This included adding new offenses (adultery, fornication, and types of blasphemy) and new punishments (whipping, amputation, and stoning to death) to Pakistani law.
- Many women began to dress more modestly, including wearing their sleeves down to their wrists and covering their heads with a dupatta.
[Afghanistan and the mujahideen]
- The Afghan war began in 1978 between anticommunist Islamic guerrillas (referred to as mujahideen) and the Afghan communist government. Soviets invaded Pakistan in December 1979 due to these insurgencies and the mujahideen rebellion grew in response. The U.S. government backed the mujahideen by supplying them with weapons via Pakistan.
- According to Britannica, "by 1982 some 2.8 million Afghans sought asylum in Pakistan" during the war. In Karachi, most Afghans lived in the neighborhood of Shorab Goth.
- The Soviets tried to eliminate mujahideen civilian support by bombing and depopulating rural areas. Eventually, the mujahideen were able to fight back against the air strikes using shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles supplied by the U.S. government.
- The Afghan war continued until 1988, when the U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union signed an agreement that the Soviet Union would withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The Afghan war officially ended in 1992.
- However, there was continued political unrest in the country.
- The Taliban, a puritanical Islamic group, took control of Afghanistan in 1996. They fought against a loose coalition of mujahideen forces called the Northern Alliance.
"The Speed Necessary to Replace Loss" (New York, Afghanistan, 2001-2)
[U.S.]
- On September 11, 2001, militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks in the United States. Two of the airplanes hit the World Trade Center in New York City. The third plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed.
- Al Qaeda cited the US's support of Israel, American immorality, sanctions imposed against Iraq, the presence of the U.S. military in Saudi Arabia, and conflict in Somalia, Chechnya, Kashmir, Lebanon, and the Philippines as their motives for the attack.
- There was a huge rise in xenophobia, especially Islamophobia, across the U.S. as a result of the attack. Muslims experienced intense scrutiny and distrust all over the country.
[Afghanistan]
- In 2001, the Taliban refused the United States's request to extradite Saudi Arabian exile Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, an extremist group that had ties to the Taliban.
- As a result, U.S. special operations forces, allied with Northern Alliance fighters, launched a series of military operations that drove the Taliban from power in December 2001. This was the beginning of the Afghanistan War, which lasted until 2014.
